Trench collapses are a common source of Georgia workers compensation claims and workplace injury claims. Often, trenches are dug quickly, with little or no structural design required to ensure those digging are actually safe. In January, Michael Wilson, of Chester County, PA, was killed when a trench he was digging collapsed.

Recently, OSHA fined Wilson’s employer, J.D. Eckman, Inc., for failing to have trained supervisors on hand to adequately supervise the digging operation. Additionally, the two men working on the trench were not trained on the use of pneumatic jack hammers, and were using the equipment in a way which led to the collapse.[Read more…]

One such work accident recently occurred in Knoxville, Tennessee, when Solin Estrada Jiminez was killed when a chunk of concrete fell off a support beam of the Henley Street Bridge. Jiminez was an undocumented worker for Britton Bridge, LLC.[Read more…]

Rick Moen, of Flandreau, South Dakota, was hospitalized after being crushed in a construction site accident in Sioux Falls. He suffered several broken bones, a punctured lung, and damage to his aorta when a wooden wall panel somehow fell on him. He will be in the hospital for months as a result of his work injuries.

Under OSHA’s Multi-employer worksite doctrine, and under the General Duty Clause, an injured worker who has a worker’s compensation claim may also be able to pursue a third-party action against the general contractor or other sub-contractor’s for creating or failing to remediate a hazardous condition. Work injury lawyers who specialize in representing those injured in construction site accidents can provide further information regarding your options if you’ve been in a construction accident, scaffolding collapse, or other workplace accident.

A contractor working on construction of the Forsyth County, Georgia water treatment facility was killed in a Georgia workplace accident last week. The worker was trapped under a piece of machinery which had rolled over onto him. According to published reports, the worker was trapped under a forklift type device and was “completely under” the machine when he was found.

The safety of contractors and sub-contractors on a construction project or in an industrial setting is often overlooked. Contractors should be included in the daily tailgate safety meetings, weekly safety meetings, and should be given a contractor safety manual when they begin work. They should always wear clothing that signifies their contractor status on the property, and, ideally, should enter and exit through a separate “contractor gate.” Unfortunately, contractors are usually just allowed on the property and instructed on their specific scope of work—-and nothing else. They are generally not brief in special safety issues, and not provided any site specific training. This is a serious problem in work place safety which leads to workers’ compensation claims and construction construction injuries.

For the second year in a row, scaffolding accidents have topped OSHA’s list of citations issued. There were over 8,000 violations issued last year related to scaffolding. Fall protection came in second, with just over 7500 violations. Whenever a worker is at a height of 4 feet (general industry) or 6 feet (construction), fall protection must be provided. Fall protection is a simple thing to do—it usually consists of just wearing a harness.

The good news is OSHA is enforcing its regulations, leading to a reduction in Georgia work injuries and lost productivity caused by on the job injuries and workers compensation claims.

Construction accident lawsuits have been filed in Atlanta over the work injures sustained in the Botanical Gardens elevated platform collapse. The lawsuits allege that the Botanical Gardens and certain contractors working on the elevated platform, as well as the project architects, were negligent in the design and assembly of the horizontal structural system used on the platform, leading to its collapse. Several construction workers were injured, and those workers filed Atlanta construction accident lawsuits as a result.

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Flynn Firm

We serve the following localities: DeKalb County including Avondale Estates, Chamblee, Clarkston, Decatur, Doraville, Dunwoody, Stone Mountain, and Tucker; Forsyth County including Cumming; Fulton County including Alpharetta, Atlanta, Roswell, and Sandy Springs; Glynn County including Brunswick, St. Simons Island, and Sea Island; and Gwinnett County including Auburn, Berkeley Lake, Braselton, Buford, Dacula, and Duluth.